There is research that will
forever sit on the shelf and collect dust…like the Mayor’s
Homelessness Action Task Force. After all, in 1999 Dr. Anne Golden wrote
“The point at which a person is discharged from a hospital or a prison is an
opportunity to intervene to prevent homelessness.”She also wrote “Institutions need to establish discharge protocols
for homeless people.Ideally, no
one should be discharged from an institution directly to a hostel, let alone
into the street.”

There is research that can
harm, like sending 1600 volunteers out with one hour training under their
belt to assess the needs of homeless people, which will undoubtedly lead to
misguided decisions and spending cuts.

There is research that is
what I call ‘research with a pulse’ - that is responsive to a
collection of issues and concerns and can give rise to healthy public policy.
Like the Street Health Report, like the secret video footage of shelter
conditions that didn’t meet the UN standards for refugee camps, like the
research on homeless deaths by Stephen Hwang.

This research is the latter.

Orange
may be my favorite colour but there is nothing more indicative of what you
could call an orange alert in the corrections system than when you see that
individual walking out of
College Park
or Toronto Jail wearing that one piece suit.

If you think or can imagine
that discharging someone who is homeless from hospital is complicated and is
begging for improvement, well imagine that system in place, not in place
really in the corrections system.I
congratulate John Howard and U of T for shedding light on this problem that
front line workers and homeless people have known about for years.

To help support this point
– the weekend Globe, as part of their critique of the ‘homeless count’
profiled a man who has been homeless 9 months since coming out of jail.

During the course of 14 years
working for 2 agencies – Queen West Community health Centre and Street
Health, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I was
contacted by staff within a correction facility to assist with discharge of
patients I knew.I was contacted
by the individuals incarcerated but never by representatives of the facility
to help coordinate discharge and supports outside of the institution.

If the recommendations in
this report are implemented – the following could occur and they are pretty
obvious:

Reduced
recidivism and improved participation in community programs including
treatment programs, employment and retraining programs

Improved
health status including mental health

Improved
follow-up for medical conditions including prophylactic treatment of
tuberculosis

Ending
the constant mobility from one congregate setting, a jail – to another
congregate setting – a shelter is one of the most important public
health measures we can take. Think about SARS. Think about a pandemic.

Reduced
costs to the system. It costs $3,700 per month to keep an adult in a
correctional facility, $900-2100 in a shelter and a housing allowance or
rent supplement of $400 per month could help house a person.

It’s just common sense.

Recommendation #47 from the
Golden Report - 1999

“Institutions should establish and
implement discharge protocols for all persons with no fixed address.No one should be discharged from an institution to the street.

Will we have to wait another
seven years for the recommendations in this 2006 report to be implemented?

I’d like to thank the John
Howard Society and the University for putting this issue back on the policy
agenda.